Ever since Nancy Murkowski’s friend had a cancer scare in the early 1970s, Murkowski has made it a mission to raise funds to help fight the disease.
On Aug. 20, the Waterfall Foundation, a nonprofit organization Murkowski founded more than 20 years ago, presented the WMC Foundation with a check for $10,000. In turn, the Wrangell foundation helps cancer patients and their families with travel and lodging expenses related to cancer care.
Murkowski’s friend had to travel from Fairbanks to Seattle all those years ago in order to find a clinic with mammography equipment.
“What we wanted to do was set up a program where anybody who wanted and needed a mammogram could come free of charge,” Murkowski said. “‘Regardless of ability to pay’ is our motto.”
Out of that effort was born the Breast Cancer Detection Center in Fairbanks. In 1994, the center needed a new mammography machine. Murkowski and her husband, Frank, who was then a U.S. senator, held a fundraiser at the Waterfall Resort, on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, raising $194,000 — enough to purchase the new equipment. The charity event has been held 22 of the past 27 years.
The Waterfall Foundation was born of that fundraising effort. Money from Waterfall’s have been dispersed to organizations in need throughout the state, including Wrangell.
“She also gave to Wrangell Medical Center when it was our community hospital,” said Patty Gilbert, president of the WMC Foundation. “And [Waterfall] gave money … to obtain new equipment, and I believe part of the money … bought the X-ray machine.”
The money donated to the Wrangell foundation will go toward helping cancer patients and giving scholarships to high school graduates who plan to further their education in a health-related field.
Gilbert said those seeking travel expense funds don’t need to disclose their income.
“We just want to make sure the travel and lodging expenses aren’t covered by some other entity, or most people’s insurance doesn’t cover that,” she said.
Since 2008, WMC Foundation has had 156 requests and has awarded $120,173 in travel expense funding. The foundation has also awarded eight scholarships totaling $10,000, with $13,000 reserved for awardees’ continuing educational pursuits since 2015.
The WMC Foundation serves Southeast communities of 5,000 people or less from Petersburg south, except Ketchikan.
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